In the prior art, there has been developed an arm and chain assembly mountable on the dipper stick of a machine, cooperable with a bucket of the machine for grappling various objects. Such an assembly is illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,613,922.
Such prior art assembly is intended to be detachably mounted on the dipper stick of a machine normally used for excavating functions. Whenever it is desired to excavate an area littered with various objects such as tree trunks, branches, boulders and the like, the assembly is attached to the dipper stick of the machine and the machine is operated to grapple and remove such objects. When the area has been cleared of such objects, the attachment is intended to be removed and the machine is operated in the conventional manner to excavate.
Although the assembly as described may be seen to be advantageous for clearing an area to be excavated, its requirement to be attached and detached when switching back and forth between grappling and excavating modes is highly disadvantageous in that it adversely affects the productivity of the machine. Accordingly, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide an assembly mountable on an excavating machine and cooperable with the bucket of the machine to grapple various objects in clearing an area, which may be permanently mounted on the machine, permitting the machine to be used in either the grappling or excavating mode. It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a permanently mounted assembly in which the assembly will not interfere with the excavator when the machine is operated in the excavating mode.